1. Field of the Invention
The invention lies in the field of conveying technology and relates to a device and to a method for conveying and releasing flat, preferably flexible objects, in particular printed products, based on a gripper conveyor. The further development according to the invention in particular serves for the controlled release of the objects.
2. Description of Related Art
In printing technology, in particular with the production of newspapers, increasingly more complex objects are conveyed and/or processed in other manners with larger and larger speeds. Such objects are for example printed products, such as newspapers, magazines, brochures, books or also credit cards, CDs, goods samples and likewise. These are selected individually and are collated into collections.
The high speeds and the complexity of the products demand very exact control of the position of the individual constituents at every point in time of the processing, in particular with the transfer of products between two installation parts of a complete installation. With the transfer of objects from a gripper conveyor to a further station, e.g. a conveyor belt, the grippers for example are merely opened, and the objects come to lie on the conveyor belt due to gravity. Thereby, it may occur that the individual products which were commonly held by the gripper, dislocate or rotate with respect to one another. This may lead to defects with the further processing.
It is, therefore, the object of the invention to further develop a gripper conveyor in a manner such that a well controlled release of the held objects is possible, in particular a deposition on a conveyor surface.